random shutdown?!?!?!?!

have you pulled any codes from my experience it sounds like the dizzy is going out common prob with the sn's ck the batt cables first and make sure theyre clean and tight

If a car stalls while in gear for a 'few seconds', you'd know it. Do you clutch and declutch to compression start it again or are you able to do nothing and it starts running fine again?

The dizzy is the distributor and the part that fails is the PIP, aka Profile Ignition Pick-up, aka ignition stator (what it's often called at Ford or some parts stores).

Start with pulling codes - if you see a PIP or IDM code, that will be telling. There are a few other components which can cause similar issues, hence why narrowing it down is so important.

For a quick check, remove the dizzy cap and rotor, and look inside the bowl. If you see metal shavings, that's a tell (bad PIP). IF you try to move the components inside the bowl (The PIP is two piece) and they move, that's a tell for a bad PIP. A magnet can help you find shavings (because the PIP works on a magnetic field).

I had the same thing, it went on for a bit. At first I noticed it when driving. Like you wrote, my car would stall from time to time and start right back up. Then it got to where it would stall and not start for a few mins. I bought a new PIP for $20 or so but I could not get the old one off the distributor without the right tools (the stupid gear would not budge). So, I brought the PIP back to Autozone and bought the reman distributor which is about $80 which includes a new PIP. Installed, set timing, and all stall issues immediately disappeared. If you don't want to goof with the timing, make sure you carefully mark the position of the dist. cap when you remove the distributor....then line up the mark when putting things back together.